<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Keep Holding On by leafyxthiefy</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/30133491">Keep Holding On</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/leafyxthiefy/pseuds/leafyxthiefy'>leafyxthiefy</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Voltron: Legendary Defender</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Age Difference, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Dad!Keith, Domestic, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gay Shiro (Voltron), Healing, Homophobia, Keith (Voltron) is Divorced, Keith (Voltron) is a Good Boyfriend, Keith (Voltron) is a dad, Keith (Voltron) is thirty-five, Keith is a detective, Keith is confused but patient, Kuron &amp; Shiro (Voltron) are Twins, M/M, Misunderstandings, Non-Sexual Age Play, Past Relationship(s), Previous marriage, Shiro (Voltron) Needs a Break, Shiro (Voltron) Needs a Hug, Shiro (Voltron) is a Mess, Shiro (Voltron) is nineteen, Shiro is Confused, Shiro is in university, Tags to be added as the story continues, and go on a date, it didn't end well, it was totally awful tho, the heart wants what the heart wants, they match on tinder, tinder au</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 16:48:03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>6,601</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/30133491</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/leafyxthiefy/pseuds/leafyxthiefy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Takashi Shirogane is an average University student, he goes to class takes his notes and when a party calls he's always sure to be in attendance. But the glamorous life of a partying Sophomore student hides a dark past filled with betrayal and pain.</p><p>Keith is finally ready to be the person he had not allowed himself to be for the majority of his life. Newly divorced he is ready to search for the love of his life that will accept not just him but his children as well.</p><p>What will happen when a drunken decision initiates a meeting between two souls from different worlds.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Keith/Shiro (Voltron)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>21</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Keep Holding On</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I love Single dad AU's so here we are, also I just really wanted to write a younger Shiro with Dad!Keith so..</p><p>Written a while back so excuse any mischaracterization, and errors on my part as this fic is unbeta’d.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>Ding.</em>
</p><p>"Tashi." if Takashi wasn't well acquainted with the voice that was speaking, he would have taken it as nothing more than what it resembled; the sound was reminiscent of a growl: deep, gruttal, and barely comprehensible. "Swear if you don't turn that shit off I'll smash it against the wall."</p><p>Takashi burrowed his head underneath his pillow, trying in vain to hold onto the sweet lull of sleep. It was too early. <em>How</em> early, he wasn't too sure, but taking into consideration the fact that there was no natural light filtering into the room it wasn't even daybreak yet.</p><p>"'ust ignore it." Takashi grumbled.</p><p>
  <em>Ding.</em>
</p><p>Kuro groaned into the darkness of their shared bedroom.</p><p>"Really, Tashi, who the fuck has enough brain cells to text you this early!" the younger of the twins muttered.</p><p>Takashi didn't reply, instead he kept his head under the pillow and listened to the muffled creaking of Kuro shifting in bed.</p><p>
  <em>Ding.</em>
</p><p>Instead of hearing the telltale sound of plastic meeting unforgiving brick wall, Takashi was gifted with an eloquently phrased question. "What the fuck is this?"</p><p>The phone gave another merry sounding <em>Ding</em> as if it wasn't five in the morning and disrupting anyone's sleep at the asscrack of dawn.</p><p>"No, seriously, <em>Aniki</em>, when did you sign up to Tinder?" Kuro continued to prod when Takashi's only response had been a muffled and non-committal groan.</p><p>Takashi was too tired to fully process his brother's words, but he knew that regaining sleep would be impossible if he didn't give some sort of answer. So Takashi gave a response he hoped was passable and attempted a shrug.</p><p>Needless to say that in Takashi's current laying position the action was ineffective and thus an insufficient answer for his brother.</p><p>Takashi groaned when Kuro's foot pressed insistently against his side, he just wanted to sleep for the next ten hours. He didn't care who was trying to reach him, or who had sighed up for a stupid dating app.</p><p>But the chimes coming from his phone didn't cease and Kuro refused to let him get off the hook that easily. Shiro actually weighed the pros and cons of letting his brother kick him to sleep, but the annoying chime was ultimately the reason he finally pulled his head out from underneath the pillow.</p><p>Takashi groaned, his eyes were screwed shut and crusted over with sleep, his head felt too big and heavy for his shoulders and he had an irrational fear that if he even tried to tilt his head in a certain direction too fast he might just end up snapping his neck. It took a great amount of effort but after a second Takashi rolled onto his side to face Kuro's side of the room.</p><p>It took several tries, but eventually Takashi was able to pry his heavy lids open a fraction of a millimeter before screwing them shut yet again. His eyes not only burned with how dry they were but they <em>ached</em>. Takashi could feel his eyes pounding within his eye sockets, begging him to stop his attempts and go back to sleep.</p><p>A too loud <em>ding</em> of his phone though, reminded him that he wasn't allowed to go back to sleep just yet. Sighing and resigning himself to his fate Takashi finally wrestled his eyelids open and gave in to the suffering he was trying to put off until later that day. He wasn't quite sure whether his pain was caused by the small amount of sleep that he had managed to get, or because he had had a couple drinks too many with Matt.</p><p>Perhaps a deadly combination of both? Takashi wondered as he finally managed to focus his eyes on his irritated looking brother.</p><p>Hell, he felt terrible.</p><p>The back of his throat felt like he had decided it was a good idea to stuff as many balls of cotton down his gullet, effectively taking away any and all moisture from his mouth while leaving behind a sour nauseating taste on his tongue. His eyes were drier than a desert, and by the feel of it, Takashi may as well have grains of sand in his eyes.</p><p>The rest of his body ached terribly and made him feel as if he had tied tons of sand weights to each of his limbs adding to his muscle fatigue, and he was sure there were a few bruises here and there… from what, he couldn't begin to say.</p><p>Reaching over to the nightstand, Takashi blindly patted around until he struck gold and uncapped the small bottle of eye drops. After some effort Shiro dripped the liquid into his eyes, giving them the moisture and relief they desperately needed.</p><p>While Takashi was suffering from the searing sting of the drops, his twin was huffing on the other side of the room. "For fucks sake, who the hell swipes at three am?! Apparently you've been getting matches since midnight, just what the fuck was that party about anyway?"</p><p>With the pain and irritation of his eyes marginally handled, Takashi inhaled half of the contents from the water bottle he kept next to the drops—unfortunately his past self had forgotten about the aspirin.</p><p>"Well.." Shiro cleared his throat, it was a pointless attempt in getting rid of the gravel in his voice, but no one can say he hadn't given it a shot at the very least. "It started as a small get together. Then Rolo was there and Lance... then the entire campus. I really didn't think it would get that bad on a Wednesday. As for the app, I don't know? I'll delete it later, just turn off the phone please?"</p><p>Takashi didn't need to look at his brother to know he was raising a perfectly styled eyebrow in his direction, but instead of prodding for more answers as he usually would have, the younger twin relented and graced Takashi with a grand show of mercy by shutting off the device and setting it back down.</p><p>"Sure. I take it you won't be joining me on our morning run then?"</p><p>Grimacing and slipping the pillow back over his face, Takashi shook his head and was immediately assaulted with regret. "Sorry kiddo, you're on your own on this one. Don't let me sleep through Lit?"</p><p>"I'll consider waking you up on my run. Get a couple more hours in, <em>Aniki</em>. See you later." Kuro patted Takashi's shoulder and began to rummage around their room, changing out of his black sweatpants and gathering his running shoes.</p><p>Three hours, a hot shower, a couple of aspirin, and three mugs of coffee later saw Takashi as bright eyed and awake as he could be on a Thursday morning after the rager he had attended the night prior. Luckily for him, he no longer felt like he had just gotten run over by a freight train after an hour long marathon run on a carousel ride. So long as he no longer felt like keeling over and sleeping for the next three years Takashi would take it as a win. He could only hope that he had enough brain power to follow along with the presentation during lecture and take somewhat cohesive notes.</p><p>Whatever bout of focus Takashi had started with in the beginning of class, however, only lasted so long. It wasn't even twenty-two minutes into the two hour long class that Takashi's brain decided it had enough thinking for the day and ceased to pay attention. All of the slides would eventually lead to the same conclusion in the end: an essay.</p><p>Six minutes after Takashi's attention diverted, he gave up on his note taking and pulled out his phone, safely hiding it from the professor's view behind his laptop. As soon as Takashi had his phone cradled in his hand, the screen lit up waking the device with the announcement of a new notification.</p><p>Expecting it to be nothing more than a status update from an account he followed on Twitter or a new like on Instagram, Takashi was actually surprised to find out that it was something else entirely.</p><p>
  <em>You have a new Match, Send them a message!</em>
</p><p>Shiro stared at his screen momentarily confused as to what the notification meant when another popped up in its place.</p><p>
  <em>Erick has sent you a New message.</em>
</p><p>Only then did Takashi read the name of the app associated with the notification: <em>Tinder.</em></p><p>Right, that was the reason why Kuro had woken up cranky that morning. Takashi had forgotten all about the app the moment his head was buried underneath his pillow and he slipped back to sleep. And he guessed that his brother had swiped away the notifications right before shutting off his phone because they had been absent from his home screen when he had checked his phone back at the apartment.</p><p>Unable to hold back his curiosity, Takashi poked the notification and entered his password to unlock his phone when prompted. He watched as the screen went white for a moment and a little fire icon bubbled to live revealing the portal that led to the application.</p><p>Another screen passed and Takashi was brought to a new one where a picture was being downloaded and—</p><p>Shiro had to stop himself from slapping his phone down onto the desk. He had to <em>bite</em> his tongue in order to keep himself from making any noise at all. His face was red, he knew that to be a fact with every single fiber of his being. Shiro could feel his heart working triple time in his chest in order to pump all the blood it could into his cheeks and effectively coloring them red.</p><p>He swallowed harshly, taking a deep breath and then in the most casual movement he could muster, Takashi glanced around. It was tough, trying to appear as nonchalant and relaxed as possible when he feltas if the word <em>pervert </em>was etched onto his forehead and shaming him in front of the whole class. Logically, Takashi knew that no one was looking in his direction, but that didn't make the sensation of <em>feeling</em> eyes on him go away.</p><p>Takashi let a few minutes pass by, giving himself some time to settle himself down before he turned his phone over again and hunched himself around the little device trying to use his entire body as a sort of shield.</p><p><em>Honestly, how can people be so shameless?</em> Takashi wondered. He took a deep breath and dared to unlock his phone again. The phone responded quickly, waking to Takashi's gentle tapping.</p><p>This time around, Takashi was smarter with his approach and opened up the app himself. He was subjected to the same theatrical opening but luckily was spared the experience of plunging face first into the close up picture of some strangers dick. In hindsight Takashi should've known dick pics were a given when it came to the app. But his brain was not benefiting at all after marinating all night in gallons of cheap beer and a number of Jagerbomb shots.</p><p>Instead of an unsightly picture of someone's phallus Takashi was met with a candid shot of a blond, his name displayed at the bottom: <em>Johnathan</em>, <em>28 13 miles away.</em></p><p>And on the top right corner of the screen there was a speech bubble, a little red dot growing and shrinking in size as if beckoning the student to click on it.</p><p>So he did. The screen changed and Takashi couldn't help how wide his eyes went. <em>62 Matches.</em></p><p>Under that there were two sections, one row was labeled <em>'Matches'</em> and displayed bubbles of what could only be the profile pictures of the users he matched with. Underneath that were the messages if the title <em>'Messages'</em> was anything to go by. The interface was roughly akin to that of his phone's generic message display, and Shiro presumed that each line were conversations initiated by the persons he had matched with. Each new 'contact' had the same small bubble as above and their name to the side.</p><p>Some of them had text message previews next to their identification bubbles that read anywhere between: <em>Well hello there Handsome. </em>To <em>FUK I WANNA RIDE U SO BAD DADDY!, or simply [tongue, eggplants, peaches and squirt emojis]</em></p><p>And then there were the contacts that only had <em>Sent a Picture</em> written next to them. Those,Takashi was <em>never</em> opening. He had seen enough dick pics to last him three lifetimes, thank you very much.</p><p>Takashi curiously swiped left on the messages and sure enough, just like a regular messenger app, Tinder gave him the option to delete the conversation, or in this case '<em>Unmatch'</em> the person who sent it. Getting rid of all the pictures sent to him along with all of the extremely inappropriate solicitations of hooking up, Shiro was then left with less than 19 or so suitors. So more than two thirds saw Takashi as a hot piece of ass, which although a very valid point—Takashi wasn't blind, he knew he looked good—it did nothing to boost his ego.</p><p>Takashi opened up the remaining messages, even went as far as to look into the profiles of those that sent them. When he was done Shiro had to admit that most of the guys were attractive and some had interesting points in their bios, but Takashi didn't really feel like messaging them back. It wasn't really ghosting people if you never added them outside of Tinder right? No one took the first message being ignored seriously… right?</p><p>A pang of guilt hit Takashi and in order to alleviate it—and stop his worry in the process—he unmatched the rest of the matches too. He reasoned it was better not give them any false hope that he would get back to them.</p><p>By the time Takashi had dealt with the last of the matches, the tell-tale sound of his classmates shuffling their things around and papers being filed away signaled the end of their class session.</p><p>Takashi pocketed his phone and closed his laptop, gathered whatever pens and the single notebook that he had pulled out earlier and stuffed them in his messenger bag before escaping the room.</p><p>"Yo Shiro!" A lanky arm slung itself around Takashi's shoulders and Lance pressed himself to his side, "Glad to see you survived. I thought for sure you'd be out for the count after that fourth Jagerbomb. How ya feeling?"</p><p>"Like death." Takashi answered truthfully, but even that didn't stop him from smiling.</p><p>Lance cackled, "Yeah those shots will do that to ya. Rolo spent the whole night spooning his trashcan and when I tried to get him up this morning he threatened me with and I quote, 'Punching my teeth in so hard that I would have to brush them through my belly button'. Not entirely sure how that's supposed to work, but hell if I wanna be the one to find out, ya know?"</p><p>Takashi snorted, "Good call. Fuck, how are you this chipper so early?"</p><p>"Dude, it's like noon! And the key to a lesser hangover is <em>water,</em> we've been through this. Water and carbs."</p><p>Takashi eyed him warily, "Easy for you to say, you have a freaky metabolism. You can eat three times your body weight and not gain a pound of it."</p><p>"What can I say?" Lance hummed, "I have them good genes. Know what you're having for lunch?"</p><p>Takashi raised the shoulder Lance wasn't occupying in a shrug, "I remember Kuro saying he wanted Thai this morning, but you know how fickle he is with this sorta thing so whatever I'm having today is really up to him. What did you bring today?"</p><p>"<em>Enchiladas</em>, though they're different this time." The Marine Biology student boasted. "My sister's roommate is from Puebla, this one city near Mexico City, but <em>anyway,</em> they make theirs with this mole sauce that just brings out this whole new flavor in them. I got to try the recipe yesterday before the party and happened to make some extras if you guys want to try 'em?"</p><p>Takashi whistled lowly, impressed. "Sounds pretty good to me, I'll take one if you don't mind."</p><p>"I wouldn't be offering if I did, Shirogane." Lance chuckled, rolling his eyes good naturedly. "I'm gonna go heat them up though, so I'll meet you at the table, okay?"</p><p>And he was gone before Takashi could even manage a reply, but that was typical Lance behavior.</p><p>Lance was an interesting friend to say the least, he was the epitome of energetic. Always the first to engage in a conversation and easy to smile. He got along with most of the people he met and once you were in Lance's circle of friends, it was impossible to leave. Not that Takashi had ever met anyone who would want to forsake the Cuban boy's friendship. Lance was one of the people that just attracted others with his openness and unabashed need to please and be the best friend that he could be.</p><p>The Shirogane twins had known Lance since their grade school years when the shorter boy had asked them if they wanted to be his friends. The three of them had grown up in the same apartment complex and had as such spent most afternoons playing with one another. Living close by landed them in the same school districts and sent them to the same institutions, and the familial relationship they developed cemented their friendship for life.</p><p>Really, the only drawbacks to Lance's character was his inability to filter his thoughts from his brain to his mouth and his bullheadedness.</p><p>"<em>Aniki,</em> good to see you're still on your feet, how was class?" Kuro asked, pulling Takashi out of his internal musings and sliding a sealed container his way, the clear lid of it foggy and beginning to pespire.</p><p>Takashi rolled his eyes, popping off the lid of his meal to reveal Thai fried rice—his favorite. "It was anything but <em>lit</em>."</p><p>Kuro snorted. "How long have you been waiting to use that one?"</p><p>"A while, thanks for lunch."</p><p>"Thank no one but yourself, Tashi, I forgot my card at home so I used yours." Kuro flashed his twin a grin and promptly dug into his yellow coconut curry.</p><p>Takashi scrunched up his nose and half heartedly kicked at his brother underneath the table. "Brat." There was no heat to his word or action though. It was common place for them to trade expenses, especially when it came to food at the campus.</p><p>"Wait! Why do you even have my card?" Takashi asked his hands going to his pockets where sure enough his wallet was missing.</p><p>"Your dumbass forgot to take it with you this morning when you left for class." Kuro oh so helpfully supplied his brother, sliding the leather item over.</p><p>"You do know that by forgetting your card at home too you're also a dumbass, right? Probably even more than me cuz I was hungover and you weren't."</p><p>"Hm, I would agree with you, <em>Aniki, if</em> you hadn't been hungover on a <em>Thursday</em> to begin with. Really, who gets shitfaced on a Wednesday. And a school night to top it off? You can have the college experience without drinking yourself into a coma you know." Kuro quipped back, spooning more of the soup into his mouth.</p><p>"I won't drink myself into a coma." Takashi grumbled, lips forming a pout around his words. "I'm reckless but that's a little excessive, have some faith in me."</p><p>Kuro hummed, teasing Takashi with his silence.</p><p>Thankfully Lance chose that time to slide his tray onto the table. "Oh my god! You wouldn't believe the last ten minutes I just went through. There were like fifty people in front of me waiting to heat up their lunch, I almost gave up and served these cold. It would have been a shame, but not the end of the world, so here you go."</p><p>A folded up tortilla smothered in brown sauce and a blanket of cheese was placed on Takashi's discarded lid, and then another on Kuro's. "Try it and don't hold back, I can handle the criticism."</p><p>Kuro quirked an eyebrow at the other student. "You ignored me for a week when I told you your funeral potatoes tasted like ass sweat."</p><p>"That's because that was uncalled for! Do you even <em>know</em> what ass sweat tastes like? How can you compare the taste of my cooking to hypothetical tastes huh, Kuro?" the Cuban boy shot back nearly raising out of his seat.</p><p>"Just admit that you can't handle bad criticism and go." Kuro groaned and in a move to appease the youngest at their table, he took Takashi's fork—ignoring his indignant protests—and shoved the enchilada into his mouth.</p><p>Getting his fork back, Takashi glowered at his twin, doing the same to his own enchilada and pausing. The flavor that burst on his tongue was delicious. It completely chased off the taste of his Thai rice and left behind a distinctive mix of flavors. Takashi could taste the chicken underneath a savory sauce of mild spices and garlic, the taste of cheese was faint as was the tortilla, but they were present and thankfully less overwhelming.</p><p>"Woah this is amazing string bean!" Kuro was the first to say after recovering.</p><p>"You bet your ass it's amazing." Lance snorted in response, though Takashi could see that he was unable to hide the beaming smile that threatened to split his face in half.</p><p>Just when Takashi was about to proclaim his undying love for Lance's cooking, his phone—which he had unwittingly placed on the table when he had searched for his wallet—vibrated and pulled everyone's attention to it.</p><p>
  <em>You have a new Match, Send them a Message!</em>
</p><p>"Huh, I woulda thought you'd gotten rid of that fucking app by now." Kuro commented, but Takashi couldn't quite get a read on his mood because Lance was suddenly reaching out towards the phone, snatching it up.</p><p>"Ah! I can't believe you actually downloaded the app, I thought you were totally kidding about that." He laughed and unlocked Takashi's phone.</p><p>Instead of scolding him for doing that, Takashi made a noise of confusion, "Wait, what do you mean you thought I was kidding?"</p><p>Lance was eyeing the screen appreciatively, scrolling by the looks of it and tapping here and there as he answered. "Last night you were getting all mopey with Matt again, so I made a passing comment about finding a Tinder date, but I didn't think you'd actually go through with it… you didn't download <em>Grinder</em> too did you?"</p><p>Takashi could feel his cheeks burning up with embarrassment. "Shit, I don't know."</p><p>Lance cackled, "Ah, doesn't look like you did… but dude is this really your pro? 'Shiro, Age 26—Why the fuck are you advertising yourself as 26? You're like, four."</p><p>"Nineteen, actually." Kuro answered for him, "And isn't that thing connected to your Facebook or something?"</p><p>At Lance's nod Kuro rolled his eyes, "Mom was always warning us to never place our real ages online, so when Takashi needs to put in his birthday to make new accounts he always fucks up the information. His Facebook birthday is March 1st 1992, so that would make him 26 today."</p><p>"Well my mom told us that too, but <em>seven</em> years? Why couldn't you just do what we did and changed the month or even the date?"</p><p>Takashi shrugged, "I'm not planning on keeping the app, so does it really matter? I literally had class right after waking up and now it's lunch time. I'll delete it when I get home."</p><p>"<em>Si tu dices</em>," Lance sang in a way that said he didn't believe a single word Takashi had just said.</p><p>"Oh my fucking god," Lance howled with laughter again. "Shiro, dude, you really were fucking hammered last night how did you even manage to be this articulate? Get this: <em>6'2 cuz that matters apparently.</em> <em>Let's go on stargazing dates and the beach. Cat dad, 420 friendly. Not a third and not tryna play any games. Let's go out for drinks. If you want a hike buddy I'll lend you my brother. </em>You got a gym selfie, one with Black, and a few selfies from when we went to the grand canyon last summer. Nice"</p><p>Takashi snatched his phone back from Lance after emerging from his hiding spot behind his hands. Lance was right, the bio could have been infinitely worse. Takashi knew he was a flirtatious drunk after five shots, and he had lost count after four, so the bio could have easily read: <em>6'2 climb me like you mean it. 420 friendly, I could be your rave bae, won't go on a hike with you but I'll definitely put you through a work out. Show me yours and I'll show you mine.</em> Or something along those lines.</p><p>Kuro snorted, obviously having the same thoughts as his brother if the smirk was anything to go by. "Well at least he was still <em>honest Tashi </em>when he made it, instead of flirt mode. But I'm guessing that you started to swipe right on every face you saw when that Tashi came out? It would explain why you had over 80 matches this morning."</p><p>"They were 62." Takashi corrected, unable to confirm his brother's suspicions, but also not able to deny them. His brother was right, he must have liked every single profile until who knows when.</p><p>"So you already looked at the app!" Lance, never once to miss a beat, declared. "And you didn't delete it then?"</p><p>"Briefly," Takashi admitted, nose scrunching up in distaste, "and regretted it deeply."</p><p>While Kuro and Lance shat themselves with laughter—and Takashi pressed on the app for the <em>uninstall</em> option to appear—his phone vibrated with a new notification.</p><p>
  <em>Keith has sent you a New Message.</em>
</p><p>Despite knowing better, Takashi pressed on the pop up notification and released a sigh of relief when he wasn't assaulted by yet another dick on his screen. Instead it was an actual message.</p><p>
  <em>
    <strong>Keith: </strong>
  </em>
  <em>Hey, my name's Keith. Though I suppose you already know that. I figured I would break the ice and send the first message. Hope you're having a good Thursday so far.</em>
</p><p>Takashi blinked at the message and… he couldn't really say that he found it endearing, but he found it… pleasant? Nice even. It definitely had a different feel from the other ones, even the ones that <em>weren't</em> pictures of dude's junk.</p><p>Out of pure curiosity, Takashi pressed on Keith's profile and his heart pretty much gave up on him; Takashi's brain, too, forgot how to function properly. Keith was, for a lack of a better word, <em>hot.</em></p><p>The man in the picture was slim but not thin like Lance was. He was more athletic, a slight hint of muscles in his arms. His face was angular and soft at the same time, a chiseled jaw underneath softened cheeks. Even the scar that he sported on his right cheek did nothing to dissuade a viewer on the fact that the man was handsome. His choice of hairstyle could have definitely used some improvement, but there was not a doubt in Takashi's mind that the man was definitely rocking the fuck out of that mullet. And the eyes… Takashi had to swallow thickly, he was looking at a low res pic of some guy on his palm sized phone and <em>even then </em>he could feel the intensity behind the eyes of the stranger. Heavily defined eyebrows completed his intense look and Takashi was immediately drawn in to the guy.</p><p>Curious beyond belief, and needing to look away from the photo before <em>he</em> decided to send a picture of his dick, Takashi scrolled down to his profile.</p><p>
  <em>Keith, 35. Yes that is my kid I am a father, don't like it then kindly fuck off. My kids will always come first. Tamaskan dog owner, he is not a wolf despite his appearance. Pretty busy work schedule, but I get spare time in between. Not here to play with games or do one night stands, and most definitely not here to join in with you and your gal. I'll send the first message if it helps.</em>
</p><p>And he's a dad. Takashi groaned internally and shut off his phone. Allura had joined the table by then, taking up Lance's attention and though Kuro gave Takashi a raised brow, he didn't comment on what Takashi obviously didn't do.</p><p>The rest of lunch went by smoothly, Lance showed off his latest creation to Allura and Hunk when he showed up and it was unanimously decided that Lance had made the most delicious of his plates yet.</p><p>It wasn't until Takashi was in his Calculus class and failing to keep his attention on the lesson—Takashi was a good student, he was just having an off day, and he knew he could cover this lesson in his sleep—when he took out his phone again.</p><p>Biting on his lower lip, Shiro opened up tinder and ignored the number of matches he had gained in the previous hour in favor of opening up the chat between himself and Keith.</p><p>Takashi gazed at the message for a long time before taking a deep breath and opening up the keyboard with uncertain fingers.</p><p>
  <em>
    <strong>Shiro: </strong>
  </em>
  <em>Hey Keith, it's okay—</em>
</p><p>He bit back a groan, that response was too <em>childish </em>of a reply. The black letters on his screen glared up at Takashi, mocking him with their unsophisticated nature. A harsh gulp was forced down Takashi's throat, the guy was <em>thirty-five</em>. He was older, just like <em>he</em> had been older. And the last thing he would be expecting was a <em>child</em> replying to him.</p><p>Keith probably wanted to connect with someone mature, someone grown up, someone well… not him.</p><p>Takashi's thumb swiped left and hovered over the unmatch option, his insecurities convincing him that he was going to get well in over his head and that he was walking a dangerous road. But, Takashi hesitated, he didn't want to erase the possibility and opportunity of speaking to this handsome older stranger. Besides it wasn't like he was agreeing to anything if he just spoke to him, right? Of course not! Takashi could just strike up a friendly conversation and he could go from there. There was no obligation and so he had nothing to worry about.</p><p>With his anxiety subsiding, Takashi deleted his previous reply and tried again.</p><p>
  <em>
    <strong>Shiro: </strong>
  </em>
  <em>Hey, my names not actually Shiro but it's what most people call me. I'm actually named Takashi, but yeah my Thursday is going well, hope yours is too.</em>
</p><p>Takashi had to resist the urge to apologize for leaving the man on read for so long, but he wasn't really sure if the app told the other party when their message was read or not. So he watched his end of the reply, the only thing it said was <em>sent. </em>What was Takashi supposed to get out of that? It was sent, but was it received? Was it read? Would he ever know?</p><p>After two minutes, Takashi's screen dimmed and his phone locked automatically. The timer had run out. It wasn't that Takashi was expecting to get a response right away, the man was a father <em>and</em> he worked, so he was probably busy and attending to that… but Takashi couldn't deny that a small part had hoped for an immediate reply.</p><p>Half of calculus went by before Takashi's phone buzzed with a new notification.</p><p>
  <em>Keith has sent you a new Message.</em>
</p><p>Excited, Takashi entered his password quickly and brought forth the app, opening the chat between them once more.</p><p>
  <em>
    <strong>Keith: </strong>
  </em>
  <em>Yeah my days going by alright, I'm grabbing a bite for lunch now. It's nice to meet you, Takashi. You know you could have kept your name to yourself, always best not to disclose too much information online. You never know when you might be talking to a creep.</em>
</p><p>Takashi snorted under his breath. If he had any doubts of the man on the other end not being a father, they were definitely annihilated. He could almost hear the parental tone behind the words on his screen.</p><p>Shiro let a few minutes pass by before he started to write out a response, best not to appear hopelessly desperate to keep the conversation going after all.</p><p>
  <em>
    <strong>Shiro: </strong>
  </em>
  <em>Lunch? At this hour? It's like four in the afternoon. It's also nice to meet you thanks, and it's just a name it's not like I'm giving you my address or my social security number, besides if I end up missing who's to say I didn't already screenshot this and sent it to everyone I know?</em>
</p><p>Unlike Takashi, it seemed that Keith had no qualms about replying right away.</p><p>
  <em>
    <strong>Keith:</strong>
  </em>
  <em> I'm aware of what time it is, but I wasn't able to get lunch earlier so a late one will have to do. And while I'm aware of you just giving me a name, do you know how much power is in a name? Especially when a stranger knows what you look like? But fair enough, like I said I'm not here to fuck around, literally or figuratively. Just be more careful about not giving out your name.</em>
</p><p>Since Keith wasn't bothering in taking up time in between replies, Takashi threw caution to the wind and did the same.</p><p>
  <em>
    <strong>Shiro:</strong>
  </em>
  <em> Ouch, well so long as you had a big breakfast, hope dinner doesn't evade you too. But yes sir, I'll keep my name to myself from now on, shouldn't you be following your own advice though? You were the one who dropped their name first.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <strong>Keith: </strong>
  </em>
  <em>breakfast was… enough we'll leave it at that and move on. Ease up on the sass tho will ya, I get enough of it at home. I know how to handle myself and no this is not me saying you aren't capable of doing the same, just some friendly advice is all</em>
</p><p>Takashi smiled, such a dad.</p><p>
  <em>
    <strong>Shiro:</strong>
  </em>
  <em> Fine fine, how about this. I'll not send my name out to perpetual strangers on the internet if you try to get more than 'enough' for breakfast?</em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <strong>Keith:</strong>
  </em>
  <em> Are you really in a position to bargain? But fine if it helps then I will try to get a more sustainable breakfast, scouts honor. So getting that out of the way, what do you do for a living?</em>
</p><p>Takashi's smile completely vanished and he cursed under his breath. While it was easy enough to remember that he had been talking to an older man, Shiro had forgotten that <em>he</em> was pretending to be seven years older than he actually was.</p><p>Takashi considered coming clean and explaining that there was an error to his age, but he knew that disclosing that would send Keith running to the hills and… if Takashi was being completely honest with himself he really didn't want that. He and Keith had only exchanged a few words, quips that would be shared between acquaintances, hardly something as intimate as friendship and definitely nothing close to anything beyond that. So then why was he feeling apprehensive about losing this match?</p><p>Keith had a point in the fact that Takashi had been too liberal with his personal information, even if it was just a name. For all Takashi knew, Keith was dropping hints to what he had planned for Takashi. Some people used Tinder for this sort of thing, right? To prey on innocent people only for them to end up dead in the woods or chopped up into little pieces on the side of the highway and appearing on <em>Unsolved Mysteries</em> or worse yet <em>Buzzfeed Unsolved</em>.</p><p>Takashi let his head fall onto his desk with a muffled thump. He was overthinking the situation and his brain was rebelling in the form of a headache.</p><p>On one hand Keith was really hot, Takashi wasn't superficial but he also wasn't blind to the fact. He also seemed to care about him, if him scolding Takashi over his name was anything to go by. He was family oriented. And to be <em>completely </em>fair, Takashi wasn't underage, just… sixteen years younger than Keith.</p><p>And on the other hand, the age thing aside. Takashi was a student, he wasn't employed, he was lucky his parents were helping him and Kuro with the food expenses so that they could study instead of getting a part time job. Did he really have time to be dating? Older man or not? What did they have in common anyway? What <em>could </em>they have in common? Takashi liked older movies and he was well versed in "retro" shows and trivia, but what was to say that Keith was interested in that?</p><p>Takashi's phone buzzed, nearly sending him flying off of his seat. Luckily he managed to keep his ass from falling to the floor.</p><p>
  <em>Keith has sent you a new Message</em>
</p><p>Takashi opened the message after unlocking his phone again. Maybe Keith made the decision for him, he had said he didn't feel like playing games in his bio after all.</p><p>
  <em>
    <strong>Keith: </strong>
  </em>
  <em>Sorry, that was too sudden wasn't it. You don't have to answer that, especially after I told you not to disclose information to strangers. Would you be open to not being strangers anymore? Perhaps grab a drink at Balmeras tomorrow night? I should be free around 9.</em>
</p><p>Had… had Takashi just gotten a date? Takashi read and reread the text and concluded that he had in fact been asked out. His elation over the fact was dampened, however, by a few things. One: was he really ready to meet this guy, no matter how nice he seemed, Takashi was sure that a lot of serial killers <em>seemed</em> nice in the beginning, he's seen the Netflix documentaries. And two: there was the matter of the location. Takashi had been to Balmeras before, of course, it was a pretty popular bar at the edge of town. But he had lost his fake ID a few weeks ago and it was too late to get another one. At least a decent looking one that <em>wouldn't </em>get him a visit to the police station.</p><p>Takashi would have to pull a few strings but… god he hoped he wasn't making the biggest mistake of his short life.</p><p>
  <em>
    <strong>Shiro:</strong>
  </em>
  <em> Hey it's okay no harm done, I'll be free tomorrow night but how about we meet at Vrepit Sal's instead? Bar food can only take you so far.</em>
</p><p>Takashi wasn't at all surprised when he got the next reply, but that didn't ease his racing heart one beat.</p><p>
  <em>
    <strong>Keith: </strong>
  </em>
  <em>valid point, Vrepit Sal's it is. My makeshift breaks over too, I'll see you then and if you can't make it please tell me, the last thing I need this week is to be stood up</em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <strong>Shiro: </strong>
  </em>
  <em>if anything happens I'll let you know of course, please do the same and remember our agreement, eat a proper breakfast tomorrow</em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <strong>Keith: </strong>
  </em>
  <em>Yes dad, I take it this is how my kids feel when I nag them. Take care</em>
</p><p>Reading Keith's last message made Takashi sputter so hard the professor had to stop his lecture and ask him if he was okay. After a dozen apologies to the professor and his fellow students, Takashi looked at the message again. His cheeks red with not only embarrassment but also because of Keith's message. <em>Dad</em>, the irony was not lost on Takashi, a dad was calling a barely adult a dad. Good god what was he getting himself into?</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I recently rewatched voltron (Skipped S8 Tho because of reasons) so my inner Sheither has resurfaced and tbh I felt really bad that I had left this story at like 14k and didn't do anything with it, so I came back to it.</p><p>I was gonna wait to post this until I had a semi-finished to finished story, buuuut then I wanted it to have the published date of my birthday so... here we are. I hope you enjoyed the first chapter, I am still working on it and really plan to see this thru. I can't guarantee scheduled updates so be on the look out for when the whim hits me.</p><p>Thank you for reading!! Stay safe and healthy!! ♥</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>